Volunteer opportunities @ Grand Canyon

[hikeaz]

Starting the weekend of February 13 and running through the weekend
of March 26, GCNP will be conducting tamarisk eradication expeditions
into the Canyon. The four-day trips will take place every Friday
through Monday (with a few exceptions) and will involve hiking down
from various points on the South Rim and camping in the
backcountry. Your days will be filled with cutting tamarisk trees
and hauling cut brush to designated areas. The Revegetation staff
with your group will also be applying herbicide to assist in the
eradication effort. The work will be hard, but definitely
rewarding! Fortunately, the inner canyon won't be too hot at this
time of year (it might even be chilly).
Tamarisk is an invasive tree from the Mediterranean that has been
gaining quite a stronghold in waterways throughout the Southwest. In
the Grand Canyon, this plant was introduced by settlers as a bank
stabilizer along streams and the Colorado River. Unfortunately, it
has adapted too well to our unique riparian environments and is
crowding out native vegetation and sucking up precious water that
other plants need!! We have recently begun a fairly aggressive
campaign along the River to eradicate this plant, but we need more
help in order to control the spread of tamarisk into side canyons.

To obtain more information or to schedule your sweaty, tiring,
fun-filled trip, please contact Kim Fawcett at
kimberlyfawcett@hotmail.com.

Thanks in advance for all of your work to preserve Grand Canyon's
natural environment! And remember...for any of you that are
interested in doing other volunteer projects, please contact me any
time at

Deb_Shannon@nps.gov.

Deb Shannon
volunteer coordinator
Grand Canyon Revegetation Crew

[whereveriroam]

I contacted the woman in charge (Kim) and I will be participating on this weekends trip to Hermit Camp. Basically these trips are 3 nights (Fri.,Sat.,Sun.) in a small group. Kim said that they had 3 more tamarisk removal trips slated for this season including this weekends. She did say the last one is full but she may be looking for someone(s) at the end of the month for the Hermit River site, that's down at the river. She told me they feed you the whole trip and if you act in time they can send you the $20 fee waiver paperwork. Remember these are work trips.